i just wanted to suggest that maybe a small percentage (5-10%) of EMP'd ships should undergo some sort of systems failure and basically be destroyed (with or without salvage). would quite possibly cut back on the extreme amounts of incomings (and defense vs attacks) cathaar get across the board and that ETD get due to fi/de emp if there was a small risk of losing *some* ships instead of it being win / win for attackers and defenders.
[edit]found two threads that sorta mention this, but they're pretty old.
'Fixing' Cathaar
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showth...&highlight=emp
EMP Salvage
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showth...&highlight=emp
(not sure if its better to bump the old ones, or start a new one though)